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Door Card lining up tips


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Morning all,

I spent an hour trying to line the clips up with the holes and the springs with the winder stalks, in the door last night. What a frustrating and ultimately unsuccessful exercise!

Any tips on the way to go about it for success? Top first?, one corner?......  I'm working with brand new door cards from John Skinner and new clips.

Water curtains are in etc so don't need any help with that bit, just the easy bit (I thought)

TIA for any helpful advice.

Sean

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Hi

After many hours on this and those dumb poppers pinging out I used a few nice screws (self tapping) across the top. I got nice ones specifically for interiors from woolies and they look great.  All I then had to do was align a couple along the bottom and use the winder and door handle to hold in place.  I think the issue for me, was after 50 years the holes were wider and the new panels simply mis-aligned.

For me, it just was not worth it - driving along, smile on face and they bloody well came loose.  Only reason not to do it is originality but my TR is not a show car.

Rich

 

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Sean, to make fitting my door cards an easier task,  I done away with the springs for the handle and simply tapped  a hole in the mechanism and screwed  them on. 

Len

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24 minutes ago, len1 said:

Sean, to make fitting my door cards an easier task,  I done away with the springs for the handle and simply tapped  a hole in the mechanism and screwed  them on. 

Len

Save a LOT of hassle don't it?!

Rich

 

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Presumably the cards didnt have winder/lock handle holes to start and you had to make the holes yourself? This is standard as they dont all come up in exactly the same place and the door cards are universal for TR4 to TR6. I locate the stubs on the cards to cut the initial holes then by hand with a circular hole cutter I cut a hole in the backing board only sufficiently large for the spring to go right through to contact the sponge ring on the door so that makes it easier to fit the springs (FWIW the repro winders have a slightly shorter stub for the handle which doesnt help) Sometimes you also need to cut one turn off the springs in this case.

As to lining up the clips the biggest problem is often the stitched beading around the edge of the card not letting the clip sit far enough out to locate . The clips sometimes need opening up slightly on the leg that goes into the card to allow them to pass over the beading or in some cases using a razor blade to remove a little of the waste edge of the beading. If you can get the top ones lined up (You will find the lower waste edge of the capping often covers some of the holes so they need trimming out around) then clip the card on there so its at least hanging on the door and using a torch and a pair of long nose pliers you can then swivel/pull the clips round to locate with the holes in the door. It can often take some considerable time to get them all in line (Thats another reason for not throwing the originals away if they were present until your ready to fit the new ones as they will show you the original angle of the clips)

Stuart.

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2 hours ago, stuart said:

Presumably the cards didnt have winder/lock handle holes to start and you had to make the holes yourself? This is standard as they dont all come up in exactly the same place and the door cards are universal for TR4 to TR6. I locate the stubs on the cards to cut the initial holes then by hand with a circular hole cutter I cut a hole in the backing board only sufficiently large for the spring to go right through to contact the sponge ring on the door so that makes it easier to fit the springs (FWIW the repro winders have a slightly shorter stub for the handle which doesnt help) Sometimes you also need to cut one turn off the springs in this case.

As to lining up the clips the biggest problem is often the stitched beading around the edge of the card not letting the clip sit far enough out to locate . The clips sometimes need opening up slightly on the leg that goes into the card to allow them to pass over the beading or in some cases using a razor blade to remove a little of the waste edge of the beading. If you can get the top ones lined up (You will find the lower waste edge of the capping often covers some of the holes so they need trimming out around) then clip the card on there so its at least hanging on the door and using a torch and a pair of long nose pliers you can then swivel/pull the clips round to locate with the holes in the door. It can often take some considerable time to get them all in line (Thats another reason for not throwing the originals away if they were present until your ready to fit the new ones as they will show you the original angle of the clips)

Stuart.

Thanks Stuart.

I managed to get the passenger door done last night but it did take a long time. The cards came from John Skinner with holes (in the HB card not the vinyl) for the handle and winder so that was OK. I didn't realise that the spring was meant to come through the hole. I fitted the springs with the wider end facing the card so I guess that made it harder. Used a small piece of duck tape to hold the spring on the card. Anyway thought I'd share my experience to maybe help others who have to do this

Starting with the top worked best, then I did front side then rear side before tackling the bottom with a mirror, torch and pointy nose pliers. I did find that I had to cut away waste edge of the beading in quite a few places and had to pull the card back off the door a few times to do this...then start again.

Once the card was on the door with the winders poking through the holes, I cut the vinyl to "let them out. I got the pins in by putting one end of the pin into a short length of electric wire sheath and using that to push the other end of the pin into the little hole with left hand while squeezing the spring and card in with right hand (think I saw this in a post from Steve  - thanks Steve). Then tapped it home with a flat screw driver.

To create space to insert the pin, I used two short lengths of brake pipe inserted between the black plastic ring and the handle either side of the cam. This actually worked very well

Another piece of advice to others doing this; the hardboard card is fairly flimsy around the clip holes and cracks easily if you try to knock the clip in when its not aligned with the hole so anyone doing this should take great care to ensure the clip is directly in line with the hole before smacking it with the heel of the hand.

Cheers,

Sean

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